GamesRadar - PC Previews

Madden NFL 07 impressions (Madden NFL 07)

27/07/2006

The annual evolution of Madden christens "the season" for every would-be athlete, coach, or super fan trapped inside the sweaty cushions of their couches, and Madden NFL 07 is proving no exception. Due to hit stores in August, 07's overhauls to the interface and - more importantly - the running game are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. In 07, you'll be able to step up as the lead blocker and crush any oncoming attempt to foil your running game, then meld right back into the light feet ...

Maelstrom - hands-on (Maelstrom)

21/12/2006

Transforming vehicles, aqua crazy aliens, and gigantic mechs of Voltron proportions left us anxious for more after playing the latest preview build of KDV Games real-time strategy, Maelstrom. We realized that Maelstrom was more than meets the eye once we played a few missions with the techno-crazy Ascension. Relying heavily on their advanced technology, each of their buildings can transform into vehicles, meaning that you can move your base about the map as you expand your forces. Vehicles ...

Maelstrom (Maelstrom)

17/10/2006

Monday 16 October 2006 KDV's last game, Perimeter, was as an oblique a take on the real-time strategy game (while still clearly being one) as you can possibly imagine. But its sales didn't match the rave reviews it received. Maelstrom is essentially KDV turning away from the frontier it reached to build upon its new-found land. The story's been constructed by professional writer James Swallow who, among other things, has also penned episodes for Star Trek: Voyager. But don't hold that against ...

Maelstrom - latest impressions (Maelstrom)

16/10/2006

Russian developer KDV Games' last game, Perimeter, was as an oblique a take on the real-time strategy game (while still clearly being one) as you can possibly imagine. But its sales didn't match the rave reviews it received. Maelstrom is essentially KDV turning away from the frontier it reached to build upon its new-found land. The story's been constructed by professional writer James Swallow who, among other things, has also penned episodes for Star Trek: Voyager. But don't hold that against ...

Maelstrom (Maelstrom)

6/07/2006

You'd think with all of Hollywood's disaster movies we'd already have a dozen or so games that highlight how much the Earth is pissed off at us. The upcoming strategy game Maelstrom plans to give us every possible disaster all at once. The human race is split into two warring factions fighting over the last remaining resources after multiple global cataclysms... just before an alien invasion. Nice timing, guys. The residents of Earth in 2050 look and control quite differently from one another, ...

Mafia II – updated impressions (Mafia II)

1/10/2009

There are a lot of myths and half-baked assumptions surrounding Mafia II – so let’s start by clearing them up. First off, this isn’t a GTA clone. It may have a crime theme, and have a limited amount of free-roaming, but it’s first and foremost a linear, story-driven experience. Secondly, it isn’t ‘just another gangster game’. That description does the game a huge disservice. ...

10 reasons to respect Mafia II (Mafia II)

27/04/2009

We’ve known about Mafia II’s existence for what seems like years, but it wasn’t until just recently that we got our first actual look at the game in motion. It wasn’t much – just a single mission – but it looked awfully polished for a game that’s still heavily under development. ...

Mafia II (Mafia II)

12/11/2008

Released in 2002, the original Mafia was pretty much one of the standout games of that year. It offset its admittedly mediocre driving (1930s bangers + speed limits = major yawns) with top shooting and a plot that honestly wouldn’t have looked out of place alongside Oscar-winning underworld fare like Goodfellas. ...

Mafia II - first look (Mafia II)

9/04/2008

2008 is shaping up to be the year of the free-roaming sequel. In the coming months, fans of open-world games can look forward to Grand Theft Auto IV, Saints Row 2, Mercenaries 2 and Just Cause 2, for starters. And assuming its still-unannounced release date happens later this year, one of the biggest will be Mafia II.

Forget what you might remember about the first Mafia's crappy showing on the PS2 and Xbox. When it arrived on ...

Mafia II (Mafia II)

4/01/2008

Jan 4, 2008 GTAs success means gangster chic will never fade, yet there are few games that place you in the trilby hat and spats of yer actual mobster, rather than an Uzi-toting modern wannabe. Fewer still that offer anything more than pun-heavy ...

Mage Knight: Apocalypse multiplayer hands-on impressions (Mage Knight: Apocalypse)

26/09/2006

If five is the magic number for your party while playing the action-soaked left-clickathon Mage Knight: Apocalypse in single player, what happens when five actual humans join in the fray? To put it mildly, it's a running, gunning, yelling, healing and curse-filled fun-fest. But that's not the best ...

Mage Knight: Apocalypse hands-on (Mage Knight: Apocalypse)

7/09/2006

We have to admit, playing the videogame version of Mage Knight - a deeply storied and popular tabletop game from WizKids - without having ever touched one of the collectable miniatures made us feel a bit like poseurs. But the action role-playing Mage Knight: Apocalypse was so instantly addictive that we soon simply felt like heroes. Mage Knight immediately stands apart from its towering peers because of its stunning good looks and versatile controls. With a flick of the mouse wheel, we zoomed ...

Pre-E3 06: Mage Knight: Apocalypse updated impressions (Mage Knight: Apocalypse)

9/05/2006

There's something primal about action RPGs. At their heart, they can usually be summed up as “go from point A to point B, kill everything that moves in between.” However, as some smart guy once said, sometimes the journey is the destination, and that's what makes Mage Knight: Apocalypse so interesting. It's basically another action RPG, but it looks like a supermodel with a sword and has a few intriguing ...

Mage Knight: Apocalypse (Mage Knight: Apocalypse)

17/04/2006

If you're not familiar with the name Mage Knight, here's all you need to know: the tabletop strategy game features collectible figurines, endless hours of flexible tactics, an expansive fantasy mythology and a rabid fanbase. Except for the tiny action figures, that sounds like the makings for a good PC game, too. Enter Mage Knight: Apocalypse, Namco's attempt to join the Action RPG ranks alongside games like Diablo and Dungeon Siege. All of the core races from the tabletop game are ...

Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure (Marc Eckos Getting Up Contents Under Pressure)

7/02/2006

It probably won't do for graffiti what the Tony Hawk games did for skateboarding, but Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure has gotten a pretty bad rap lately. A game about a graffiti artist living in a police state where tagging is a capital crime, it's been called everything from a celebration of vandalism to a gang-recruitment tool. But regardless of what its critics say, Getting Up takes an interesting spin on the urban-crime genre and, if done right, could be a lot of ...

Marvel Universe Online (Marvel Universe Online)

14/01/2008

Jan 14, 2008 Whats going on at Cryptic Studios? Three years ago, they came out of nowhere to deliver City of Heroes, the super-hero MMO that demanded you wear spandex when playing. It had a smart approach to group play (you could rope your low-level friends into your group by making them a sidekick) and comic book panache (punch a goon and hed fly back a dozen ...

Mass Effect - hands-on (Mass Effect)

8/05/2008

If you never played Mass Effect on the 360 you probably won't notice most of the improvements that have been worked into the upcoming PC version. But in a way, that's a good thing. BioWare's epic space opera still looks gorgeous and will keep you busy for hours on end as you trek across the galaxy with your ragtag posse outcasts and aliens. But most of the tiny problems we had with the console version have been addressed, which makes the PC ...

Mass Effect 2 – hands-on (Mass Effect 2)

23/10/2009

“Shepard! But... but you’re dead!” cries a baffled Asari crime lord having been backed into a corner by our hero. “I got better,” replies Shepard, as cool as a penguin’s bum. It’s not a dialogue choice, it’s right there in the cutscene; otherwise we’d have chosen the option along the lines of “I know, after that E3 trailer I’m just as confused as you about the whole thing." ...

Mass Effect 2 - Updated impressions (Mass Effect 2)

13/08/2009

Morality. It’s a tricky thing in games. When you’re called on to make some kind of ethical decision in a virtual world, the choices are usually black and white. Kill or arrest. Gift or steal. Rescue or abandon. In the original Mass Effect, the choices were rarely so easy, partly because of the ambiguity of the characters, and also because you weren’t sure what the consequences might be. ...

E3 09: Dying in Mass Effect 2 isn’t game over, its trilogy over (Mass Effect 2)

5/06/2009

Life or death decisions. Forsaking the fate of the Galaxy for greed and power. Shooting cherished allies in the face. Mass Effect was a pretty dark game. It’s got nothing on its sequel, though, which combines the same tough RPG decision-making moments with grittier, more morally ambiguous action. It’s also a game where death matters like never before. And this time, if you die as protagonist, Commander Shepard, you might not be ...